Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD (aka TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, 1971) from Kino 4/16

It looks like preorders finally went live for Kino's next Bava disc, the awesome proto-slasher A BAY OF BLOOD (1971). The listings are a little screwy for now (distributor listed as MVD, the blu listed as DVD); I'll do up an extended post once they get fixed. This is probably the title I was most excited about from this whole Bava upgrade series -- the import Arrow release had horrible black levels and bad contrast. I can't wait to see this new edition!

I have the Arrow BD, but haven't watched it, so I can't confirm the Kino release is better, but I'm not seeing any color muting here. There's plenty of detail to be had and there is a nice layer of grain. This transfer looks great to me.

I thought the Arrow release was one of their better HD transfers...but apparently its not.

The Arrow release is certainly the most detailed it has ever been, and is overall pretty nice, but the black levels lean more towards gray and the colors are a bit more drab than they probably should be. You can see a comparison to Anchor Bay's release here:

A perfect print would be somewhere between the two -- the AB release is probably a little too color boosted.

Image's first release had issues with the audio distortion during louder scenes. They actually fixed the audio and were going to reissue the title (I have a finished check disc with the corrected soundtrack), but it became clear that Alfredo Leone wasn't going to renew the license so they didn't bother.

The Arrow release is certainly the most detailed it has ever been, and is overall pretty nice, but the black levels lean more towards gray and the colors are a bit more drab than they probably should be. You can see a comparison to Anchor Bay's release here:

I hated that the colors looked so muted on the transfer and have held off for a better release. I think Santa Sangre's blu-ray is lacking in the color department too - the colors should pop - especially being on blu-ray.